The Boomerang Effect
by the.goal.is.greatness
Summary: Go ahead and tell me you'll leave again. You'll just come back running, holding your scarred heart in hand. It's all the same. [Jareth x Sarah] [song!fic]


**Title:** The Boomerang Effect  
**Genre:** Romance  
**Rating:** T  
**Pairing:** Jareth x Sarah  
**Spoilers:** N/A  
**Summary:** Go ahead and tell me you'll leave again. You'll just come back running, holding your scarred heart in hand. It's all the same.  
**Word Count:** 1,475  
**Warnings:** N/A

**Disclaimer:** Not mine. Summary belongs to Sick Puppies (All the Same). I suggest listening to that song while reading this, since I originally wrote this as a song!fic, but lyrics aren't allowed on this site.

**A/N:** Apparently there's a manga sequel (non-cannon?) but I've never read it, so I'm just basing this strictly off the movie.

* * *

His kingdom felt empty, a puzzle with a missing piece, a maze with no ending. There was something – _broken_ – about it, something unwell. And he knew what it was. Sarah was gone. A girl who'd he thought to have a mere momentary affair with – a young girl, who would never make her way to the Goblin City. She would go and the child would stay. They would never speak or see each other again.

But she had made it through his labyrinth – through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, she had fought her way through. To him. In his mind, it was always to him. Not the Goblin City. Not her brother. To _him_.

He wished… he wished he had known what she would be like, before he'd taken the child, before he'd given her the time to complete the maze. If he had known, he might… he might not have used so much subterfuge and magic. Just himself. Would she have done anything differently? Would she have… stayed?

He couldn't tell now, looking back, what was real and what was illusion. Was that Sarah dancing with him at the ball – starstruck with hearts in her eyes? Was she seeing him, in that moment, him who was really himself? Not hiding behind a mask or magic? Or did she only see him as the man who had stolen the child she had so thoughtlessly given away? The man who lead her on a chase through a labyrinthine set of corridors and staircases?

She had been but a child when they met – strong-willed, bright-eyed, defiant. The perfect juxtapose of the beautiful woman she would become and the petulant child she was. He could see them both in her when he looked at her youthful face. It was like one image superimposed upon another. He could see the brat who'd thrown her brother to a goblin for crying; he could see the girl who had braved beasts and swamps to get him back.

He loved them both.

But she left. She left him, she left this world of magic and grandeur and adventure. All to go back to the human world, to her parents who'd always left her alone, to her brother who always cried and got his way, to her dog, to her books and her toys.

Without her knowing, without her awareness, he watched her grow. Watched those childish features melt into arched cheekbones and fiery eyes. She had the same defiantness she had as a young girl, but now it was enclosed in soft curves and long legs. He knew that sense of adventure was still there, that it would lead her back to him. She wouldn't be at ease in this boring human world – there was no daring, no bravery, no excitement. She would be smothered here before too long, suffocated under the weight of rules and jobs and bills and expectations. It would ruin her.

Then she is eighteen and she comes back to him – drawn to exhilaration and risks, needing to be something more than what the human world makes her. Her brother remains behind. It is only her this time.

And it is glorious.

She is unafraid and brave – snapping back at his wit and criticisms with venom of her own, her eyes dancing and vibrant. There is no pressing need to fulfill a quest, no eleventh hour. She smiling broadly, laughed freely. She is here for him only, for his kingdom, his world. It – he – draws her in, showing her hidden corners of the Goblin City, wanting her to never leave, only to stay.

But after hours, days, a week, he sees her awareness start to shatter. Her eyes are far away, her mind somewhere else. She will leave again.

When he tries to tempt her attention away her smiles are less bright, her laugh more forced. Her mind is trapped at a job she needs to go back to, bills she needs to pay, people she needs to see. Life beyond this, beyond them. He doesn't want her to go, but he knows he can't force her to stay. So he cajoles her with wonder and astonishment and marvels. Things he know will stay with her. They will simmer in her mind like time bombs, ticking, ticking, ticking. Until one day when the human world is too much, she will remember what he showed her.

And she will come back.

He can wait. He can wait for as long as it takes. Until she realizes that this is where she belongs.

More weeks, more months, years again pass by in endless slide. He waits, keeps himself occupied. He takes other children, turns them into goblins when their families do not come for them, when their families are not smart enough to save them. None of them are Sarah.

He adds to his Goblin City. More dangers drawn from the human world – dragons of fire and ice, riddles with no answers, creatures made of smoke and ash, wells with no bottoms, towers with no tops. He wants Sarah to be so amazed she never leaves. Flowers that make you sleep, candy that makes you grow, creatures who read minds, cats who speak in secrets, men who age backwards. He takes his time. Makes it perfect. Children who are ageless, carpets that fly, butterflies that speak in songs, places where days repeated and the clock stopped.

He had nothing but time.

She is twenty-two when she returns again – eyes glittering with intelligence, tongue sharp with sarcasm and wit. She is sure of herself now as she has never been before. There is a worldliness to her, a way she carries herself – a woman who is becoming aware of her place in the world, aware of her place with others. She looks at things as if they are puzzles to be solved, she tries to put science in a world of magic. She stares at him with the quizzical gaze of a bird, trying to see into his head, trying to figure him out.

But how to tell her, show her, that he is whatever she wants him to be. When she is not there, when she is gone away, he is but a half-man, always waiting and dreaming of the day she will return to him. He lives only for these moments when she is here with him.

The smell of her hair, the softness of her skin, the press of her mouth. He drinks her in like light made liquid and tangible. She pours herself into every dark corner of his heart and soul, places he had no idea were there, holes he had no idea were empty until they were full of her.

His arms ached without her, she was never far from his thoughts. But underneath all of that, the terror, the knowledge that one day, she would get that far-away look in her eyes again, and she would be lost to him.

He can wait, he can wait for as long as he needs to for her to realize where she really belongs. Twenty-three. Twenty-five. He's waiting for her each and every time. She is always just a little different, but still totally and completely herself. Always Sarah.

Twenty-seven and she is more _here_, more _present_ than any other time he has seen her. Her brother is grown, he doesn't need her anymore. He hasn't needed her for a long time. Her parents do not tell her what to do anymore. Merlin is gone. There is nothing keeping her trapped in her world. Nothing but boring, repetitive tasks. Day-in and day-out. Her days are the same, they are dull, they are meaningless.

She was close, so close to staying. He could feel it.

Stay with me. Stay and I will make you a queen. Stay with me and I will give you magic. Stay and I will let you visit the human world whenever you desire. Stay with me…

He knows that she will return. He _knows_. But it doesn't hurt any less when she chooses her human life over this one, here, with him. But every time it takes her longer and longer to leave. Each time she leaves more and more of herself behind with him. Just stay…

Stay with me, and I will be your slave…


End file.
